Engaging our language learners seems to be so darn hard this year. Keeping our students engaged is always at the top of our list, but it´s not an easy job. For many years, I thought that the answer was to discover a good game, activity, or resource to engage language learners.
Honestly, a good game, activity, or resource can contribute to the engagement of a class. Authentic engagement, on the other hand, needs something else.
Before we keep talking about engagement, let’s define what authentic engagement is and what it’s not.
What is Authentic Engagement?
There are so many words in education that were so confusing to me at the beginning of my teaching career. One of those words was “engagement”. I don’t know about you, but I confused engagement with entertainment and compliance.
Don’t get me wrong, entertainment is fun. I love to have a good laugh in class, but we don’t need laughs and a big show to cultivate engagement. That means that we don’t have to be on at all times, laughing, and with high energy in order to engage our learners.
Now let´s talk about compliance. I like compliance. In my early years as a Spanish teacher, a compliant class was so much better than a disruptive one. However, the fact that students are following rules, and maybe answering a few questions, doesn’t mean they are engaged.
So, What is Authentic Engagement?
The Glossary of Education Reform defines student engagement as “the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.”
There is no doubt that student engagement is very important, but in our language classes, it is paramount. According to Dr. Krashen, “we acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or obtaining comprehensible input in a low-anxiety situation.”
Our learners cannot be passive participants in class. On the contrary, they need to listen with the intention to understand the message. They have to be engaged. Otherwise, it would be like throwing spaghetti at a wall.
Before I continue with this, I want to make a disclaimer. Our value as teachers cannot be linked to the level of engagement of our learners. Yes, we need to incorporate good practices in class that leads to engagement, but there are a lot of elements outside of our control.
We can incorporate solid practices with great strategies, and we may have days, or several days, where our classes seem SO disengaged. During those days, the worst thing we can do is to believe that we are just bad teachers, the worst teachers, but we are not.
When I have a class that is disengaged, I do my best not to take it personally. At times, it’s not about me. It’s about them and something that is going on with them. That’s why asking our learners questions is important.
At other times, students may come to class with a very negative disposition. Even before they set a foot inside your class, they hate it. It takes time and patience to change that. It can be painful, but that doesn’t make you a bad teacher.
As I said, don’t take it personally. Observe, ask questions, and be objective when you have a disengaged class. You can adjust your lessons, incorporate new strategies or activates, and eliminate something that may not be working for that class. But be graceful with yourself.
Now that we made that clear, we can continue.
How To Engage Students in Our Language Classes
There are three pillars that create the foundation of my class: comprehension, connections, and communication. These three elements contribute greatly to the engagement of my learners. Whenever I see a lower level of engagement in my class, I like to check if any of these three elements are missing, and at times they are.
You can learn more about my three pillars in my Pillars and Framework Guide. I wrote this document last year after a lot of reflection. Just click here to get it into your inbox.
Now, let’s look at my pillars.
Comprehension
Our language must be comprehensible to our students. Our content must be comprehensible to our learners. We need to keep our classes comprehensible. As I mentioned before, we acquire language only when we understand the message.
When our classes become incomprehensible, not only do learners not acquire the language, but they will be lost, confused, and feel very incompetent. All of those feelings lead to high disengagement levels and increases the anxiety filter of our learners. That’s bad.
Read more about how to keep your class comprehensible here.
Connections
This is a huge one. Building connections is my first priority at the beginning of each school year, and I dedicate a big part of my daily class to continue building authentic connections with my students. Click here to learn more about how I build connections in my class with very low prep activities.
As humans, we engage more authentically with people that we trust and feel connected with. Think about the meetings and professional development sessions at school. Don’t you feel more engaged when you trust the facilitators of the meetings and when you have a connection with them? I do.
It happens the same way with our learners, but that’s not all. I like to be intentional about building connections among my own learners, and I want to have a strong and respectful culture in class. I talked about this topic in an Episode of Inspired Proficiency with Ashley Uyaguari from Desk Free.
Another connection is with the content of my class. I want my students to relate to the content I provide for them either because they see it reflected on them or because that content opens a door for them to explore. Being intentional about having a diverse curriculum that speaks to all our learners contributes to their level of engagement.
This topic is so important to me that I will write a separate post that explores more about it.
Communication
The use of language in class, at least most of it, should have a communicative purpose. Communication is defined by Dr. Bil Van Patten, in While We’re On The Topic, as the interpretation, expression, and sometimes negotiation of meaning.
What are the communicative purposes? There are three: to entertain, to learn about something, or to build relationships.
Communication is an active process. Learners must attempt to interpret the meaning embedded in our language. The problem that we have at times is that in language classes, we use language to practice language and not to communicate.
Let me give you an example. If one of my learners has a yellow shirt, and I ask the class “What is the color of her shirt?”, the purpose of that question is probably to practice the colors but not to communicate. Therefore, the level of engagement of my learners may be low. They aren’t really engaged in authentic conversations with authentic messages.
That’s why keeping our classes communicative driven will boost the engagement in class.
How To Engage Language Learners with Stories
There has been so much research about the power of stories and the power of storytelling in education. Why stories? Because stories inspire us, connect us, and teach us about people and places we may never get to know.
My dad was an incredible storyteller. He had a farm in Santander, Colombia, and we spent a lot of time there. The farm didn’t have electricity. Around 6 PM, he would light up a candle and start telling stories. It was magical.
More than 20 years later we remember those stories. Not only the events but the emotions and feelings we had. More than that, my cousins and I developed a special connection because of those stories. Those stories connected us.
Oral transmission has been so important for humankind. That’s how knowledge, beliefs, and values were transferred when there were no written records or accounts. But even when the written language was created and became the norm, oral transmission was still powerful.
Despite all the advantages of technology and the written language, storytelling is still in our DNA. According to the article, The Pedagogical Power of Story Telling, “ human understanding of stories is internalized to the extent that we may not recognize how much we rely on them in our everyday lives or how valuable they can be in teaching contexts.”
We, as humans, understand the structure of a narrative. Even if we don’t understand all the words, we grasp the plot and the main events. We know how stories work, and the good news is that they work the same in all languages.
Not only do we understand stories easier, but those narratives also create emotions and feelings in us that help us remember those stories. One more thing, when we are in the context of a class and we are telling a story, the emotions and feelings of the learners become shared emotions and feelings, and like with my cousins, we create different connections.
It’s so powerful that one may wonder why we don’t use more stories in class.
I love stories because stories are much more easily comprehensible, are communicative driven, and build strong connections in class. These three elements boost authentic engagement in class.
What Stories to Tell
The use of stories in language classes is not new.
TPRS Ⓡ (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Story Telling) was created by Blaine Ray. In this method, the teacher would tell a story to the class, ask a lot of questions to the learners to check on comprehension, personalize the story, and add plenty of repetitions of the language.
Also, Dr. Beniko Mason developed Story Listening with incredible success. Dr. Beniko Mason mainly uses fables and tales.
She does not rely on a lot of personalized questions or make changes to the original story. Instead, Dr. Mason uses Comprehension-Aiding Supplementation to support comprehension. The CAS can be drawings or visuals or short word translations on the board. I love how simple, yet powerful, Story Listening is.
We also have Story Asking which is very similar to TPRSⓇ. Teachers and students co-create a story. That co-creating process is incredibly powerful. It builds strong connections and, of course, the story is very comprehensible since the students helped to co-create it.
As you can see, stories have been used a lot in language classes with incredible success because they promote language acquisition. Delivering comprehensible input through stories is very successful.
But, for me, the stories that create the ultimate impact on my students are non-fictional stories. I love to incorporate the stories of the people and the places that speak the language that I’m teaching.
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishops talks about the importance of creating mirrors, windows, and sliding door glasses in our classes so students can see themselves reflected and where they can see, learn, and experience a different world.
Authentic and non-fictional stories not only support language acquisition but also cultivate enduring cultural understanding. We are opening doors for our students to help them experience a new world. It´s through that experience that appreciation and respect for different cultures can happen.
One of my favorite stories to tell my students is the story of César Chávez. His determination, sacrifice, and strength inspire my students year after year. Even after school, students come back to say hi to me and they say “Sí, se puede”.
Through stories, we can communicate so much easier the values, richness, and traditions of a culture. That, in my view, not only engages students but can transform them.
I also love to talk about Renata Florez, las Cholitas Escaladoras, Lorena Martinez, Egan Beltrán, el Carnaval de Barranquilla, Cinco de Mayo, San Basilio de Palenque ,and many more people, events, and places that opens doors for my students.
Don’t get me wrong, I love fictional stories too. Like the one I created about the Casa Batlló in Barcelona that was a success. Those stories are great also. But the ones who help my students see different worlds, tend to be more transformational.
How to Tell a Story to Engage Language Learners
There is no one way to tell a story. I believe that once you start telling stories, you will develop your own style of storytelling.
However, we need to make sure that the stories are comprehensible and comprehended by our learners. It´s okay if they miss a few words, but they need to grasp the plot of the story. We need to remember that lack of comprehension creates disengagement and does not lead to language acquisition.
How can we keep stories comprehensible? I wrote before about how to stay comprehensible in general. But, in a story, these are my musts:
- Go slow.
- Use short sentences.
- Pause frequently to let your learners process all those words.
- Use gestures, body language, drawing, and visuals to support comprehension.
- Ask questions. How many and how often depends on each class, but always observe. your students to make sure they´re with you. Observation is key in storytelling.
Start with a short story and build from there. It´s hard for students to concentrate and just listen for too long so short is always better.
In addition, make the story memorable. When we make a story memorable, those emotions will help build more connections and learners will remember more easily.
How can we make a story memorable?
- Put emotions in each sentence.
- Use pauses that create tension.
- Use rejoinders to share with your learners your own emotions.
- Love the story. If you find the story fascinating, your learners will probably do the same.
Are you ready? I know it can be intimidating the first couple of times, but the results are amazing. It takes time, and some practice, but it´s worth it.
Finally, there is a hidden benefit in using stories. You can use one story for ALL your levels with a few adjustments. That´s is AMAZING! If you are like me, with 3 preps or more, you´re going to love that. I certainly do!
If you want to know more about how I structure my classes, and the pillars that build my foundation, just click here to get it in your inbox.
Even though shifting to a more comprehensible and communicative driven class has been the best decision as a teacher, the stress and overwhelm of building a new curriculum is undeniable. That’s why I’m so excited to offer this FREE video series training Map Your Ideal Year for your WL Class. Click here and get access to 3 videos and a live session with me to map your next school year. I hope to see you inside!
